Hook Arts Media is happy to announce that Taína Asili will be joining the 2020 Red Hook Fest broadcast!

Taína Asili is an Albany, New York-based Puerto Rican singer and activist carrying on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. She performs an energetic fusion of powerful vocals laid over Afro-Latin, reggae, and rock, bringing love, resistance, and ancestral remembrance to venues across the globe. In January 2017, Taina performed for over half a million people at The Women’s March on Washington. Her music video “No Es Mi Presidente” (Not My President) premiered in Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post named her in a list of in a list of “12 Freedom Fighting Bands To Get You Through the Trump Years”; Billboard Magazine featured her in a list of “11 Songs of Protest & Resistance by Latino Artists”; and her music has been aired several times on Democracy Now!. During Taína Asili’s 20-year career of creating music for social change, she has toured within and outside of the U.S. numerous times. She has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Alicia Keys, Talib Kweli, Janelle Monáe, and Tom Morello, and activists such as Cornel West, Barbara Smith, and Angela Davis.

Learn more about her here:

Facebook: @TaínaAsili | Twitter@ TaínaAsili | Instagram: @TaínaAsili | TaínaAsili.com

For the past 27 years, Hook Arts Media has proudly partnered with multiple organizations to share resources, services, activities, and opportunities with Red Hook Fest audiences. Activities have usually included scavenger hunts, reading tents, face painting, button-making, poster crafting, and free kayaking on the harbor.

This year, we’ve partnered with a few of the organizations that have been at the front lines of the vital relief efforts in Red Hook. Covid-19 has devastated our city, and we deeply admire the many people who quickly mobilized to serve Red Hook. While we didn’t have the resources to highlight all the efforts, we were able to shine a light on these peoples’ brave work:

Find a selection of the organizations, agencies, and initiatives that have partnered with us at Red Hook Fest in previous years:

Red Hook Fest Community

It’s Showtime NYC  joins the festival lineup following a successful and inspired performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, called “Battle Hip Hop in Armor.” A project of Dancing in the Streets, It’s Showtime NYC celebrates NYC street culture and provides performance and professional development opportunities to street and subway dancers. From NYC to Paris to Rio de Janiero, It’s Showtime NYC has worked with celebrated dancers and choreographers including Anne Nguyen and Faustin Linyekula and has been praised in The New Yorker and New York Times.

Learn more about It’s Showtime NYC here:

Facebook: @ItsShowtimeNYC | Instagram: @ItsShowtimeNYC | Twitter: @ItsShowtimeNYC | Itsshowtime.nyc

Hook Arts Media is happy to announce that Ballet Hispanico’s Second Company BHdos will be performing on the Red Hook Fest mainstage on Saturday, June 1, 2019. BHdos will present Performances for Young People, which take audiences on a guided journey through Latin-American dance and music. This interactive, fun-filled exploration features excerpts of the Ballet Hispánico repertory and is narrated by a member of Ballet Hispánico’s artistic team.

Ballet Hispánico, America’s leading Latino dance organization in the United States, has been bringing individuals and communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures through dance for nearly 50 years. Whether dancing on stage, in school, or in the street, Ballet Hispánico creates a space where few institutions are breaking ground.

The organization’s founder, National Medal of Arts recipient Tina Ramirez, sought to give voice to the Hispanic experience and break through stereotypes. Today, Ballet Hispánico is led by Eduardo Vilaro, an acclaimed choreographer and former member of the Company, whose vision of social equity, cultural identity and quality arts education for all drives its programs.

Ballet Hispánico, a role model in and for the Latino community, is inspiring creativity and social awareness in our neighborhoods and across the country by providing access to arts education.

Learn more about Ballet Hispánico here:

Facebook: @ballethispanico | Twitter: @ballethispanico | Instagram: @ballethispanicoedu

Ballet Hispánico Community Arts Partnerships from Ballet Hispanico on Vimeo.

Hook Arts Media is happy to announce that The Dance Cartel will be performing at Red Hook Fest 2019. THE DANCE CARTEL is after a new brand of dance experience. Taking note of a dance community that often serves a niche audience, the Cartel creates dances that are VIBRANT, IMMERSIVE and often PARTICIPATORY. Without sacrificing technical rigor or artistic ambition as a dance company, we endeavor to employ the social nature of dance, the charge of a party, and the sharpness of a music video to a fresh dance vocabulary that any Joe can get down with.

Their June 1 performance promises to deliver on all this and more. Music Edited and Mixed by Dj Avg Jo.

Learn more about the Dance Cartel here:

Facebook: @TheDanceCartel | Twitter:@TheDanceCartel | Instagram:@TheDanceCartel | thedancecartel.com

LINELIGHT on the High Line from The Dance Cartel on Vimeo.